Below the Surface
by the-Mad-Majesty-of-Muchness
Summary: When Claire and Crystal meet a man calling himself the Doctor, they can tell there's more to him than meets the eye, and the same is true of Alex. And when the Krillitane show up in town, the Doctor vows to finish what was started six years ago. This time, though, he has some new allies, and the group won't make things easy for Lassar. Not in the slightest.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay, so thanks to some friends, I started watching Doctor Who several months ago and was instantly hooked. I fell in love with Nine almost immediately, and started shipping him and Rose almost right off the bat. I was so sad when he regenerated, I was like, "NO, WAIT, YOU CAN'T, NOT YET, YOU AND ROSE HAVEN'T HAD NEARLY ENOUGH TIME TOGETHER, PLEASE, BABY, DON'T GOOOOOOOOO...!" and then I went and did some gross sobbing in a dark corner for the next week.**

 **ANYWAY, in order to help myself cope with that experience, I created a daughter for Nine and Rose, and have been trying to come up with a plot for a story to use her and her best friend in, and I decided that in order to continue helping myself cope with the loss of Nine, I would have him regenerate in that story, and deciding that helped me come up with the beginning of the plot, believe it or not.**

 **AND THEN, THIS HAPPENED:**

 **The writers of Supernatural brought Claire Novak back and started doing things with her that convinced me that she would end up becoming one of THE most kick-ass hunters the world has ever known, and I knew that I would eventually to write a story about that, too. And THEN, I was like, "Wait a minute, why the hell not do both at the same time and make it a Superwho story? I could bring my hunter OC in, too!"**

 **So this is that story.**

 **Um, I would just like to go ahead and take this opportunity to say that I am still in the early episodes of the Tenth Doctor. The last episode I watched was "The Age of Steel," otherwise known as S2:E6 of New Who. I've meant to watch more since then, but I just haven't had the chance, unfortunately, so since I am still relatively new to the DW fandom, I am going to be relying on the wiki for certain things (such as in this chapter when I had to look at how to spell Raxacoricofallapatorius), along with the notes I've been taking as I've been watching and what friends (namely my best friend's boyfriend and a girl in my last period class) have told me in response to questions I've asked them about certain stuff, and I do ask that when you review, you don't give me any major spoilers for the show, so please and thank you for that in advance.**

 **Also, as you'll probably come to realize shortly after you begin reading the story, this is somewhat of an AU for the DW universe in that the Doctor didn't regenerate at the end of the events in "The Parting of the Ways," otherwise, due to the timing of things, as you will probably figure out for yourself, Alex wouldn't physically resemble Nine, she'd resemble Ten, but since that is not the case...I'm sure you catch my meaning.**

 **Anyway, I'll just go ahead and disclaim, then shut up and let you read and decide for yourselves if this is something I should bother to continue working on or not.**

 **I OWN NOTHING (except Alex, Levi, and Crystal) AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

Alexandra Tyler's life had never been what most people would consider "normal." In fact, if anything, it was the exact opposite, and it had been since the day she was born. First of all, there was the fact that she wasn't fully human, what with her father being from another planet and everything. Then there was the thing about how, like her father, she had two hearts. And of course, who could forget the part about how she was likely to live for centuries longer than a normal human? Most importantly, however, was probably the fact that she had spent her life traveling through time and space with her parents up until she was ten years old, and then things took a sudden and rather drastic turn.

Because that was when the Krillitane ruined everything.

For Alex's whole life, she had only ever known one face for her father. She knew all about Gallifreyans regenerating and taking on new appearances each time it happened, and she knew that even if she wasn't half-Gallifreyan, she herself would still have that same ability due to the fact that she'd been born in the TARDIS. However, it had yet to happen to her, and she'd never seen it happen to her father, either. For her entire life, he'd had short brown hair, blue eyes, and had worn a leather jacket that she rarely ever saw him without. But on the day the Krillitane wrecked things for her family, that changed when one of them managed to fatally wound him, and he ended up regenerating right there in front of Alex, his hair getting longer and his blue eyes—the eyes they shared—turning brown, while his jaw shape and overall facial structure also changed along with his physical build, making his jacket suddenly look a bit big on him. And as for Alex's human mother, well...

...she was simply knocked unconscious and never woke up after the whole mess.

* * *

"And that one?"  
"The synchronic feedback circuit."  
"Good. And what about this one?"  
"Visual stabiliser circuit."  
"Very good. Where's the banshee circuit?"  
"Right there."  
"Alexandra?"  
"Yeah...?"  
"Congratulations, you've passed."

Alexandra smiled, and the Doctor returned it as he took off his glasses and replaced the hatch they'd been peering into, though inside, both his hearts ached a bit at the sight of her, not that he would ever admit that out loud. He couldn't help it. She just looked so much like Rose in the face, but with blue eyes rather than brown, especially when she smiled. Alex was sixteen now, and she looked more and more like her mother with each passing day. (Of course, it also probably didn't help much that she wore her brownish-blonde hair braided into pigtails so often, which was something that he vividly remembered Rose doing more than once.)

They had spent the last couple hours or so going over the different components of the TARDIS and what each one did. All of it was stuff that Alex already knew, having spent her whole life watching her father operate the controls and perform maintenance on things, but, he said, it never hurt to have a review every so often just to be sure, and since she saw no reason not to, she humored him when he decided it was time for a pop quiz. Well, assuming she wasn't in too foul of a mood, anyway, which didn't happen terribly often.

"Now," the Doctor said as he stood up, "where should we go next? I'll let you pick since you did so well."  
"I dunno," she said, shrugging. "I think we should wait for Levi, though, otherwise he'll end up complaining that we picked without him again."

The Doctor frowned. "Oh, yeah," he said, "you're probably right. He's been gone an awful long time, wonder where he got off to."  
"Oh, you know Levi," Alex replied, "he probably just got distracted by something and lost track of time, the pillock."

As if on cue, the door of the TARDIS opened, and the very person in question stumbled in, his hair tousled as if by the wind, even though there was nothing more than a light breeze outside. Alex and the Doctor stared at him as he came in and shut the door behind himself, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry 'bout that," he said, "I ran into an old mate and couldn't get away, he talks too much for his own good. What? Why you both lookin' at me like that, what'd I miss?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said. "I gave Alex a pop quiz, she passed with flying colors, and how many times do I have to tell you not to touch unless I say it's alright?"

Levi quickly drew his hand away from where it was hovering near some of the controls on the console, shoving them both into his pockets. The Doctor watched him closely for another moment or so, then turned sat himself down in the pilot's chair. "Perfect timing, actually," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms. "We were just about to decide where to go next. I told Alex she gets to pick since she did so well on the pop quiz. So, Alex, where to this time?"

"Man, why does Alex always get to choose?" Levi complained.  
"Oh, shut up, I let you choose last time," the Doctor said.

Levi Cox was Alex's age with messy reddish-brown hair, sea green eyes, and a small scar just above the outer point of his right eyebrow, and when he wasn't getting distracted by something, he was likely to either be complaining about something else or asking a lot of questions about things that he usually had no business asking about. He and Alex had met when they were about seven during one of the times when she, Rose, and the Doctor had been in London visiting Jackie Tyler. Alex had been rather hyper that day, so Rose had sent her out to go on a walk and get some of her energy out, and while on that walk, she's had a rather unpleasant encounter with a boy much larger than her, and Levi had been passing at the perfect moment to witness the small, somewhat scrawny girl that was seven-year-old Alexandra Tyler deck the boy hard enough to make his nose bleed, then turn around and flee the scene like a bat out of hell. Levi had followed out of curiosity, trailing her when she went back to Jackie's apartment later on, and the two had been friends ever since. By the time they were eleven, enough trust had been built up between them that Alex was even able to get the Doctor's permission to tell Levi that she was half-alien and bring him inside the TARDIS for the first time. He'd thought the entire situation was the absolute coolest thing ever.

And now, at sixteen, he was traveling in the TARDIS with Alex and the Doctor.

Of course, there were rules. Rule Number One was "Don't wander off," of course, and Rule Number Two was "Keep the door open when you're in each other's rooms."

"Barcelona!" Alex exclaimed suddenly, making Levi jump in surprise as he and the Doctor both turned to look at her.

"The planet or the city?" the Doctor asked.  
"The planet, definitely," Alex replied.

"There's a planet called Barcelona?" Levi inquired of nobody in particular.  
"Yep!" the Doctor said brightly. "Barcelonian dogs don't have any noses! I wanted to take Rose there to see them, but I, uh...I never got the chance."

There were a few beats of silence where they all just sort of looked at the floor, not sure what to say.

"Maybe not Barcelona," Alex said quietly after a few moments. "Maybe just stick to Earth for now."  
"No, no, it's alright," the Doctor said, "we can go there if you want. Neither of you have ever been, it'll be fun."  
"No, maybe some other time," Alex countered. "How about instead we go to...Ooh! What about Raxacoricofallapatorius?"

Levi blinked and shook his head, eyes going wide. "Raxa-who-do-what-now?" he said.

"Raxacoricofallapatorius!" Alex and the Doctor chorused.

"We went there once when I was a kid," Alex continued. "It's where the Slitheen are from. 'Course, that was before your time, so you wouldn't know what I'm talking about, but still."

"Slitheen? Is that a species or something?" Levi asked.  
"Or something," the Doctor answered. "See, Raxacoricofallapatorian society is based off families, and the Slitheen are one of those families. They're criminals, the Slitheen. Once, before Alex was born—and I guess also before you were born since you're the same age—Anyway, before Alex was born, a group of Slitheen disguised themselves as humans holding various positions of government leadership and tried to take control of the British government to start a nuclear war. Wanted to turn Earth into a nuclear reactor pile and sell the remains off as starship fuel. Anyway, Rose and I managed to stop them with some help from Rose's friend Mickey. If you want to hear the full story, you can ask Alex to tell you, she knows it."

"So, these Rax...Raxa...Whatever this species is called, they're hostile?"  
"Oh, no, not at all! In fact, most of them are actually very peaceful! It's the criminal families that are the problem. No, Raxacoricofallapatorians teach their kids math and poetry, they made their planet a paradise for themselves and other peace-loving species, some of them are even brilliant farmers, believe it or not. They don't like the criminal families at all, they punish them without mercy, even got a death penalty for the dangerous ones like the Slitheen. I'm not gonna tell you 'bout that, though, 'least not while Alex is in the room with us. She thinks the way they do it is one of the nastiest things she's ever heard of, doesn't like to hear or talk about it because it makes her feel nauseous, and the last thing we need is anybody throwing up all over the place. If you're curious, though, I'll tell you about it some other time when it's just you and me, maybe when she's sleeping or in the shower or something. So! Are we in agreement, then? Raxacoricofallapatorius?"

Alex nodded eagerly, a big grin on her face, and Levi shrugged. "Sure, why not?" he said. "Could be fun since it'll be a new planet for me."  
"Excellent!" the Doctor exclaimed, getting out of the chair. "In that case, everybody grab onto something, 'cause here we go!"

He began fiddling with things on the console, grinned at them, and then pushed a lever forward, and the time rotor started moving as the TARDIS began making her distinctive sound. Alex laughed gleefully as they were given the usual jolt, Levi rocking a bit on his feet as it happened, and the Doctor smiled at the sound of his daughter's laughter.

 _God,_ she looked so much like Rose.

Once the jolt was over and they were moving smoothly through the vortex, everyone let go of what they were holding onto, and Alex took off her brown faux leather bomber jacket, draping it over the railing and straightening out her t-shirt, which the Doctor then saw clearly for the first time.

"Oh, Alex, really?" he said.  
"What? It's funny," she replied.  
"She kind of has a point," Levi chimed in.

The t-shirt was black and had the word ALIEN written right across the chest in big, rainbow tye-dye letters. Levi had gotten it for her as a Christmas present one year as a joke, and they both thought that it was absolutely hilarious given the irony of who was wearing it. And while the Doctor had found some amusement in it at first, after a while, it had kind of worn off for him, and now it was to the point where he just didn't understand why she felt the need to wear it anymore.

Another thing the Doctor didn't understand was her habit of leaving little notes taped up in various locations around the TARDIS—on the column, on the console itself, on doors, in the bathrooms, the kitchen, just about anywhere she deemed suitable. They weren't just any notes, though. Jackie had once given Alex a set of the notepads made by Knock Knock, the ones that said things like "Hot Mess Citation," "Social Media Citation," "Paper Tweet," and so on and so forth. The specific ones that Alex had received were "Roommate Citation," "Guilt Trip," "Passive Aggressive Note," "In My Humble Opinion," "Crap," "Just Sayin'," "Social Media Citation," "High Five," "Another Meeting," "What To Wear," "Paper Tweet," and "Hot Mess Citation." And Alex had gotten into the habit of filling one of these out and then taping it up in any spot she knew that the Doctor or Levi—whichever one of them it was intended for—would be sure to find it sooner or later, and she did this whenever she felt the need, which happened at what seemed to the Doctor to just be random times. While Alex thought that doing this was quite funny, the Doctor thought it was a bit odd, even for her, and although Levi had thought it was kind of funny for a while, he was now at a point where every time he found one, he would roll his eyes and say something along the lines of, "Dammit, Alex, again, really?!"

Neither the Doctor or Levi had ever actually witnessed Alex filling one of these out or leaving it to be found. In fact, she was so good at staying undetected while leaving one behind that if they didn't know any better, they might even think that the notes just magically appeared out of thin air all by themselves.

Right now, Alex and Levi were both very obviously trying to repress their laughter about the shirt thing. When the Doctor sighed and shook his head, they broke and started cackling in amusement. The Doctor let out another sigh. "Geez, what am I going to do with you two?" he said, though not without a certain amount of fondness in his tone. (And if he was being honest, it wasn't just fondness for Alex; as annoyingly ignorant as he could be at times, Levi really did have a certain sort of charm to him, and he had grown on the Doctor quite a bit more than had been expected at the time he'd agreed to let the boy travel with them. Besides, anyone who could make his little girl smile and laugh like Levi Cox did was guaranteed to earn points in the Time Lord's book.)

He was yanked out of his thoughts suddenly when the TARDIS lurched sharply. The Doctor instinctively stuck both arms out and caught himself on the console while Alex and Levi both stumbled and nearly lost their footing before grabbing onto each other for support, though Alex nearly pulled Levi to the floor with her when her knees buckled slightly. After a few moments, everything went still again, and they all just sort of stood there in silence looking at each other.

"What was that?" Levi asked finally, furrowing his brow in confusion.  
"I dunno," the Doctor said, "but I do know that we've landed, and wherever we are, it's _not_ Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Are you sure?" Alex asked.  
"Positive," he replied. "We weren't in the vortex nearly long enough to have gotten there."

"Then where are we?"  
"Not sure. I'll go and have a look outside, both of you stay here. If we've landed somewhere dangerous, I don't want either of you getting hurt, so stay put until I've given the all-clear, understand?"

"Yes, Dad."  
"Yes, sir."

The Doctor gave a nod, then grabbed his sonic screwdriver, went to the door, then paused and looked over his shoulder at the two teenagers.

"If I'm not back in ten minutes," he said, "find Sarah Jane. Don't come looking for me."

"But Dad—"  
"Don't argue with me, Alexandra, just do as I ask, alright?"

"...Okay," she said quietly.

He gave a nod. "Good girl," he said, and then turned back towards the door. He gripped the handle and got ready to open it.

"Dad?"  
"Yes, Ale— _"_

He cut himself off when she threw herself at him suddenly, then once he recovered, returned the hug.

"Be careful," Alex said. "It's bad enough we lost Mum. I don't wanna lose you, too."  
"Don't worry, sweetheart," he murmured. "I'll fight my way back to you if that's what I end up having to do. I won't give you up that easy. I promise."

He planted a soft kiss on her forehead, and she gave him a small smile.

"Alright," he said, "I'm off. Wish me luck."

And with that, he turned and left the TARDIS.

* * *

 **Okay, so this chapter was obviously just to kind of give you an idea of how Alex and the Doctor got to where they are in their lives, introduce Alex and Levi, and set things up for stuff to start happening. Next chapter, I'll introduce you to my SPN OC and explain how Claire became a hunter, do some exposition from her side of things, and then in the NEXT chapter is where I'll really start to get things going.**

 **Anyway, please remember to review because it gives me motivation and makes the Doctor happy, and when he's happy, we're all happy, right? Right. SO REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**WOOOOOO, I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD GET THIS CHAPTER UP UNTIL TOMORROW BUT I WAS WRONG, THIS IS AWESOME! :D *throws a party***

 **Anyway...**

 **We're gonna meet my other OC here and learn about how Claire ended up becoming a hunter, then we're gonna get some monster ass-kicking action, woo!**

 **I OWN NOTHING (except my OCs) AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

Shortly after her eighteenth birthday and everything that had happened that day, Claire Novak began entertaining a certain idea that had come into her head as she'd said goodbye to Castiel and the Winchesters, and that idea was that maybe she should become a hunter herself. After all, she'd lost both her parents to the supernatural forces that were at work in the world, and she felt like she'd seen enough of what was really out there and knew enough about it now that she might just be able to pull it off without being a _complete_ royal screw-up. Plus, she'd already killed an angel, so why not try killing demons and other stuff, too? And there was also the fact that Castiel had said that if she ever needed to, she could call out to him and he would come, so counting the Winchesters along with him, she already had three allies, which was more than most newbies probably had. And she did still have that angel sword in her bag.

Still, she was on the fence about it.  
That was, until she met Crystal.

Crystal Abbott was a year older than Claire with gunmetal blue eyes and cropped hair with asymmetrical bangs that was what she herself referred to as _"the_ most platinum of platinum blondes on the planet, so mother effing pale it's nearly white, I shit you not," though this wasn't apparent because she kept it dyed the same shade of orange that Johnny Depp's hair had been when he played the Mad Hatter with a neon green streak at the front of the bangs. She had two piercings in her left ear and three in her right, she wore a black suede choker with a winged heart, and had a bunch of clothes and jewelry with an _Alice in Wonderland_ theme, because she absolutely loved all things _Alice,_ and her favorite t-shirt was black with the white outline of an upside-down top hat underneath the words "WE'RE ALL MAD HERE." She was constantly wearing either tights or high socks that were either a crazy color or had some kind of pattern or design on them, even when they were hidden by jeans or some other pair of pants that covered them up, and she always wore the same shoes, a pair of brown-and-black ankle boots with a one-inch heel that laced up in front and were modeled after Victorian coal mill boots. Her favorite tights were the striped black-and-neon blue ones, and she knew all sorts of random trivia about various things.

She had also been a hunter since she was sixteen.

The way Crystal told it to Claire was that she'd been born to a teenage mother who gave her up for adoption, and at six months old, she had been taken in by a gay couple. Partly because it had been an open adoption and partly because this was just the kind of people they were, her dads had decided that they thought it would be nice if Crystal's mother continued to be part of her life, so they had kept in touch with her over the years, even letting her be Crystal's baby-sitter when the need for one arose. For a long time, things had gone on this way with the five of them very happy, and Crystal growing up in a very supportive environment with not two, but three parents, all of whom she had always felt quite close to, though perhaps not all in the same way.

And then, one day, her mother had died in a car accident, months after which both her adoptive fathers were killed by a kitsune, which would have also killed Crystal if a hunter hadn't showed up when he did and killed the creature, after which Crystal had quite naturally demanded to know what that thing was and why it had killed her dads, so the hunter had taken her away from the scene of their deaths to calm her down and explain things, and immediately afterwards, she had decided that in order to keep her dads' spirits alive and honor them, she wanted to become a hunter so that she could kill things like the kitsune that would otherwise kill innocent people like it had killed her dads.

So that's exactly what she'd done, and she'd been at it ever since.

Meeting Crystal and hearing her story helped Claire finally make up her mind, and she decided that like Crystal, she wanted to honor her parents' memory by helping prevent things like their deaths from happening so that others wouldn't have to suffer the way her family had suffered because of the supernatural world. When she voiced this to Crystal, the older girl smiled and asked if maybe Claire would like to team up. They could both benefit, she said. Claire would have a more seasoned hunter to help her learn the ropes, and they'd both have someone to watch their backs, someone to talk to who understood what it was like to lose loved ones to that hidden side of the world, and to help them get out of tight situations and things like that. Claire thought it over for a moment, and then, seeing no reason not to and deciding that Crystal had a pretty good point about the benefits, she agreed to the partnership.

And that was how Jimmy Novak's daughter began her career as a hunter.

* * *

Something or someone was shaking her, but Claire did her best to ignore it, rolling over in bed and shoving her head beneath the pillow. She had gotten back to the motel she and Crystal were staying at pretty late last night after dealing with a changeling situation, and she was tired from the whole mess. One thing that she'd quickly learned about being a hunter was that nearly getting killed by all these various creatures could be pretty exhausting business. It was definitely one of the things about the job that she considered to be more of a downside, though getting to kick monster ass was, in her opinion, totally worth it, especially when she got to use really good sassy, snarky, and/or sarcastic comebacks and comments and stuff, which was something that Crystal was _really_ good at. (Crystal was what Claire liked to refer to as a "SassMaster," or, in this case, since she was female, a SassMistress.)

However, the shaking only got more persistent. Still, though, Claire somehow managed to ignore it until suddenly, it stopped. Then, just as abruptly as the shaking had ended, her pillow was forcibly yanked away from her head and somebody started repeatedly whacking her with something.

"Ow, hey, what the—I'm up, I'm up, cut it out already, geez!" she cried, shielding herself with her arms as she sat up in bed. The whacking stopped, and she lowered her arms to glare at the offending person, which turned out to be none other than Crystal, who stood there next to Claire's bed with one hand on her hip and the other gripping Claire's stolen pillow.

"Oh, good, you're awake!" Crystal said. "Up and at 'em, girlfriend, we got work to do!"  
"Oh, God, my head," Claire groaned. "What time is it, anyway?"

She looked at the clock on the nightstand.

"Dammit, Abbott, it is _way_ too early, are you crazy?!" she demanded.  
"Mad as a hatter, Novak, mad as a hatter," came the reply.

Claire groaned, flopping backwards onto the mattress.

"Seriously, though, we've got work to do," Crystal said matter-of-factly.  
"What kind of work, what are you yammering about?" Claire asked.

Crystal tossed the pillow at her, and she caught it as she sat back up, hugging it against her chest while she listened to her friend talk.

"Two hours ago," the older girl was saying, "I went out to re-stock on snacks and stuff before we hit the road tomorrow—er, I mean...today, I guess. Anyway, that's beside the point. Like I was saying, I went out to re-stock on snacks, and I overheard the cashier at the gas station talking to someone, I assume a local, about some guy that had come in earlier who the cashier had never seen before. Said the guy was dressed kind of funny, spoke with a British accent, and he was asking if anyone in there had seen two teenagers, a boy and a girl, but the descriptions didn't sound familiar and nobody had seen anyone matching them and blah blah blah and how the whole thing was just weird, right? So then the guy he's talking to is like, 'Oh, you think that's weird? You clearly haven't heard about the body the police found earlier.' And so the cashier's like, 'What body?' And the guy goes on to describe how the cops apparently found this body that was like totally drained of blood, and so I hear this, and of course, now I'm thinking, 'Oh, shit, sounds like we got some vamps in the area, I better go back and wake up Claire so we can take care of this before it gets out of hand and someone else gets killed,' right? So anyway, long story short, I went ahead and tracked the vamps down, they're in this cabin out in the woods, there's maybe four or five, possibly six, from what I could tell, and I peeked in one of the basement windows, and get this—two people are tied up in there. Two _teenagers._ A boy and a girl."

"You think they're the ones that British guy was looking for, don't you?"  
"I think it's possible, and that either way, they need saving, so are we gonna go kick some vamp ass or what?"

"Let me get dressed and get my gear, then yeah, let's kick some vamp ass."

So Claire hauled herself out of bed, threw some clothes on, she and Crystal geared themselves up with weapons, then they left their motel room and stepped outside, where the sky had only just begun to lighten. Early morning mist was all over the place, giving everything a somewhat eery look, but the girls had been inside places that looked way creepier than what they were seeing at the moment, so it didn't bother either of them one bit.

Crystal led her companion to the woods that were on the outskirts of town, and when they entered the trees, both of them pulled out blades as their senses went on high alert, each of them ready to protect the other as well as herself and put up one hell of a fight in doing so. They crept through the underbrush with caution and as quietly as they could manage given the foliage and the leaves, sticks, and other things that lay on the ground. Finally, after about twenty minutes, they came to a clearing with a cabin with the lights on in the front windows. The girls got as close as they dared, then crouched down behind a tree with a trunk wide enough to keep both of them out of sight should anyone exit the cabin or look out a window.

"Alright," Claire whispered, "what's the plan?"  
"I'm thinking we pull the distract-and-break on 'em," Crystal whispered back.

"Who's doing what this time?"  
"You distracted last time, so I'll do it this time."

"Got it. Where's that basement window?"  
"Around back. There are some steps leading down to a door. You'll see it, trust me. Just be careful."

"Always am. Alright, here goes. Good luck."

One thing that a person might not be able to guess just by looking at her was that Crystal Abbott had a beautiful soprano voice. A friend of hers who was all over _Phantom of the Opera_ the way Crystal was all over _Alice in Wonderland_ had once told her that she sounded kind of like Sierra Boggess, which, that friend had assured her, was a good thing. Another thing a person might not guess about Crystal and her voice was that while she did sing very beautifully, she could was also quite good at deliberately sending herself way off-pitch and hitting insanely sharp notes. When she did this, the result could be rather unpleasant to listen to, and she had figured out long ago that she could use it to her advantage from time to time while hunting, such as by using it to distract monsters.

Having determined who was going to do what, Claire pulled out a pair of earplugs that she carried around exactly for this reason, quickly stuffed them into her ears, then gave Crystal a thumbs-up. The other girl nodded, then skittered out from their hiding place, standing in the clearing in front of the house. She took a deep breath, then let out an ear-shattering, off-pitch high C-note.

It served its purpose perfectly.

When the vampires came out to see what was going on, as soon as she was sure that all their attention was fully focused on Crystal, Claire and her knife crept out of hiding and when around the side of the cabin, and from there, to the back of the building. Sure enough, just as Crystal had said, there was a short flight of stairs that led down, at the bottom of which she was met with a wooden door. She tried the handle, but it was locked, so she set her bag down and pulled out the lock picking kit that she kept in one of the side pouches on it, then made short work of the tumbler. As soon as she heard the click, she put the kit away and opened the door, still on high alert and hoping that Crystal would be able to keep the bloodsuckers busy long enough for her to get in, find these two kids, then get the hell back out. She was also hoping that they weren't already too late.

"Hello?" she called softly. "Anybody in here?"  
There was a muffled cry in response, and when Claire looked in the direction it had come from, she saw a pair of teenagers that looked maybe a couple years younger than she was tied to chairs that were facing back-to-back in the corner of the room, both of them with gags in their mouths. She sheathed her knife and hurried over, removing the gag from the girl's mouth, only for her to immediately start spitting in that way that suggested she was trying to get rid of a bad taste.

"Thanks," she said in a London accent, "much longer with that thing there, and I'd probably have gotten mouth herpes or something."  
"No problem," Claire replied, smirking at the girl's comment as she took off the boy's gag. When she did, he sent a big wad of spit flying across the room.

"Levi, that's bloody disgusting," the girl said.  
"You can't even see me, you don't know what I did," the boy replied, also with a London accent.  
"Just 'cause I can't see you doesn't mean I don't know what that sound was, you pillock," she retorted.

"That's men for ya," Claire remarked as she pulled out a smaller knife than the one she'd been wielding before. "Now hold still, both of you. I'm gonna cut these ropes off and I don't want to hurt either of you on accident.

There was a sudden commotion somewhere upstairs that ended with a very loud bang and a furious male voice shouting, _"Where the bloody hell is my daughter?!"_

"Dad!" the girl exclaimed, her blue eyes lighting up.  
"Blimey, he sounds pissed," the boy commented. "Don't think I've seen or heard him anywhere near that angry since—"

"DAD!" she shouted, cutting him off. "DAD, I'M DOWN HERE, LEVI'S WITH ME! CAN YOU HEAR ME? DADDY!"  
"Shut up, you idiot!" Claire hissed. "You'll draw attention and then they'll come down here, is that what you want?!"

Before she could get a response, there were several pairs of pounding footsteps overhead running in the direction of the basement.

"No!" Crystal's voice screamed. "Don't go down there, you'll get them killed!"  
"I already lost her mother," the same male voice replied, "I'm not losing her, too!"

There was a bang as someone or something rammed into the door, then a rattling sound as they tried to open it, followed by a strange noise that Claire had never heard anything like before, then the door at the top of the stairs leading from the main house into the basement flew open and a male form all but flew down the stairs with a cry of, "Alex!"

"Got it!" Claire announced triumphantly as the ropes finally gave way and snapped apart beneath her knife, allowing the other girl and her friend to stand up. Perfect timing, too, because just then, the man who had come rushing into the basement flung himself at the girl and they threw their arms around each other.

"Oh, thank _God_ you're alright, I was worried sick!" he said. "I thought I told you to stay put!"  
"It wasn't our fault, Dad, we didn't want to leave!" she replied. "They forced their way in and—"

She was cut off as four people, three female and one male, came down the stairs, one of them being dragged by two of the others and struggling against them. The man who had come down first immediately turned around upon hearing their footsteps, pushing the girl who was evidently his daughter behind him and holding up a strange device in a threatening manner that carried a strong suggestion of protectiveness over the girl behind him.

Claire's heart sped up when she realized that the person being dragged was none other than Crystal.

"So, Doctor," one of the female vampires said, "we meet again."  
"So it would seem," the man said. "How'd you know it was me?"  
"Oh, please, you're the only creature to carry that silly toy you've got there."

"Wait," Claire said, "you know each other?"  
"Know each other," the vampire said, "please, he helped kill my first nest, I only survived because I promised not to cause anymore trouble!"

"And yet here you are kidnapping my daughter and her friend," the man retorted.  
"I saw that box of yours and knew I'd found a chance for revenge," the creature replied.

"Avenge _this,_ bitch!" Claire shouted, and then charged at the monster with her big knife drawn. There was a faint whooshing sound as the blade cut through the air, and next thing anyone knew, the vampire's head tilted to one side before falling clean off the neck, the body slumping to the floor and landing there in a crumpled heap. The boy's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide, the girl covering her mouth with her hands as she turned away from the sight and made a gagging sound. Taking advantage of the shock the other two were in, Crystal broke free of their hold and drew her own weapon, slicing off the male's head, then the female's in a single fluid motion.

In the stunned silence that followed, the man that the vampire had called Doctor put his odd device in his pocket, then turned around and put his arms around his daughter, who seemed like she was about to throw up. "Come on," he said, "let's get you out of here before your stomach empties itself, shall we?"

She nodded weakly, allowing him to guide her out the door that Claire had entered through. Everyone else followed them outside, heading up the stairs. By the time they reached the front of the house, she seemed to have recovered. Claire turned to Crystal.

"I'm assuming you got the other two already?" she said.  
"Yeah, just before this psycho here showed up," Crystal replied, jabbing a thumb towards the man.  
"I am not a psycho!" he protested. "Well, okay, perhaps I am a bit mad, but I wouldn't say psycho! What are you, anyway? Hunters? Bit young, don't you think?"

"Wait," Crystal said, "how did you know we're hunters? You don't look like one yourself."  
"Oh, I'm not, but I've met a few in my time," he replied. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, nice to meet you. This is my daughter Alexandra and her mate Levi."

"The Doctor?" Crystal echoed.  
"Yep, that's right," he said.

"Doctor who?" Claire asked.  
"Exactly!" he declared with a broad grin.

 _Yeah, this guy's mental or something,_ Claire thought.

"Thanks for untying us," Alexandra was saying.  
"Huh? Oh, yeah. No problem," Claire replied.

"Can we go back to the TARDIS now, Dad?" the other girl asked. "That place made me feel all icky, I want to take a bath."  
"Of course we can, just a minute," the Doctor replied. Turning to the two hunters, he said, "Well, it was nice meeting you, thanks for helping get Alex and Levi out of there. Come on, you two, let's get going! Raxacoricofallapatorius isn't going to travel to itself, you know, and we need to figure out why we came out of the vortex before we got there. Hope she's not throwing a temper tantrum on us again. Off we go, come on!"

And just like that, before Claire or Crystal could say or do anything to stop them, the strange trio was gone.

* * *

 **Yeah, I'm not good at writing fight scenes, which is why the vamp deaths were so quick and to the point. :/  
**

 **Um...yeah...For once in my life, I have absolutely nothing to say except please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so nothing much happens in this chapter, although Castiel does make a bit of an appearance, so yay for that! Also, you'll notice that I made a lovely cover for this story, yaaaaay! lol. Um...yeah, that's about it for now.**

 **I OWN NOTHING (except my OCs) AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

 _Pain._

 _He was in so much pain. It was excruciating, and made it so hard to focus on anything else. He was only vaguely aware of Alex crying and begging him to get up. He wanted to take her in his arms and soothe her, reassure her that he was alright and everything was going to be okay, but he couldn't. The truth was, he wasn't alright, and it was beginning to look as if things might not be okay. They had gotten separated from Rose and Sarah Jane, and Lassar had badly injured him. Now he was laying on the ground bleeding out while his daughter sat beside him in tears, and the regeneration process wasn't starting quickly enough. He struggled not to think about the pain, to think about something else; about Alex and Rose, about how he hoped he would get lucky this time and turn ginger when he regenerated, about anything and everything except the pain._

 _Then, finally, he could feel it happening._

 _He felt his clothes get a bit too loose on his body as his physical build shifted into an entirely new one, felt other things happening, too, and then, in the next instant, it was over._

 _"Daddy?"_

 _He opened his eyes, blinking a few times before he sat up. There was blood on the floor from the wound Lassar had given him, and Alex was standing a few feet away with bloodshot eyes and tear tracks on her amazed face. He looked at his hands, then reached up touched his hair, discovering that it had gotten longer. He put his hands on his face and felt it. Just as he expected, the structure was different, and the skin felt somewhat smoother, as if he'd taken on a younger appearance than what he'd had previously. He looked back over at Alex, who was still staring at him in wonder, the look in her eyes one of uncertainty._

 _"I—New teeth. That's weird," he said. Alex watched him as he stood up on slightly shaky knees. "It's alright, Alex," he said, "it's still me. I promise."  
_

 _Relief washed over her face, and she rushed to embrace him. The moment was short-lived, however, because he remembered something suddenly._

 _"Rose," he said. "Come on, let's go find Sarah Jane and your mum!"_

 _Everything after that was a blur of sound and color. They eventually found the two women, but it was already too late. Sarah Jane was kneeling on the floor beside Rose with her back to them, but when she heard their approaching footsteps, she turned, her eyes widening at the sight of him. "Doctor?" she asked. "Is that you? What—"_

 _"Lassar wounded me, I regenerated," he said shortly. "What's going on, why is Rose on the floor, is she alright?"  
As he spoke, he knelt down beside Sarah Jane, gently turning Rose over onto her back. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so peaceful she could've been asleep. That was, if it hadn't been for the blood trickling down from the place where her skin met the roots of her hair._

 _"Dad?" Alex said. "What's happening, is Mum okay?"  
"Stay back, Alex," he said, "give me a minute, alright?"_

 _Alex and Sarah Jane watched as he gently took hold of one of Rose's wrists and felt for a pulse. Finding none, he began to panic and did the first thing that came to mind, which was to give Rose chest compressions in an attempt to kick-start things back into action. When that didn't seem to work, he tried doing CPR, then alternated between the two, all the while making silent pleas with her to wake up and be alright, not only for his sake, but for their daughter's sake, as well._

 _"Doctor," Sarah Jane said finally, grabbing him by the shoulders. She shook her head sadly. "It's no use. She's gone. I'm so sorry."_

* * *

The Doctor gasped sharply as he shot bolt upright in bed and looked around.

How many times had he relived that horrible day in his dreams...?

He lay back down and stared blankly at the ceiling, a million things rushing through his mind, most of the memories of Rose—her smile, the sound of her laughter, her scent, the way she'd been so full of compassion, her joyful tears when she'd held their newborn daughter for the first time, what she had tasted like every time they had kissed, how she used to call him "my Doctor," what a wonderful mother she'd been to Alexandra, the overjoyed expression on her face the day Alex had been born when she'd looked up at him and said, "She has your eyes."

The list went on and on...

He had been absolutely loathe to the very idea of leaving her body behind that day, so he had done the only thing that made sense to him, which had been to pick her up and carry her back to the TARDIS. The Krillitane had made their escape by that point, so he, Alex, and Sarah Jane had reached the TARDIS without any trouble. After dropping Sarah Jane off somewhere and saying goodbye, he had taken Alex back to Powell Estate and, after having to explain that despite the new appearance, it was still him and why it was he looked different, he then did what had been the second most difficult thing he'd ever done during Alex's lifetime, which was tell Jackie that Rose had been killed and how it had happened. Then, a few weeks later, at Rose's funeral, he did the first most difficult thing he'd ever done in his daughter's life:

Saying his final goodbye to Rose Marion Tyler.

He couldn't go back to sleep. Not now, not with all this on his mind. He knew from past experience that every time he closed his eyes, images of that day would flash in front of him, and he couldn't bear to see that again so soon, not after waking up from a nightmare about it. He had decided to keep the TARDIS on the ground until he figured out what had caused the early exit from the vortex, and it was currently the middle of the night wherever they had landed. (Based on the accents everyone in the nearby town had spoken with, he was thinking somewhere in mid-western America, but he wasn't entirely sure and didn't know the exact location, he'd have to check.) He lay there in bed for a few more minutes or so with his eyes open, just staring up at the ceiling. He soon found, however, that he couldn't keep up with that, that he needed to be up and doing something to help distract himself from the unwelcome thoughts and images invading his head.

So he did the only logical thing he could think of and threw the covers off himself, getting out of bed and getting dressed, making sure he had his glasses and his sonic screwdriver in his pocket before heading out into the hall and closing the door softly behind himself so as not to wake up Alex or Levi. He paused for a minute, trying to decide what he ought to do now, then turned and went down the hall, stopping when he came to a door with a hand-drawn sign on it that said in large green and purple letters, ALEX'S LAIR OF AWESOMENESS with random little doodles of various things like smiley faces, flowers, rainbows, and peace signs, lightning bolts, and skull-and-crossbones all over it. As quietly as he could, he slowly turned the knob and opened the door just enough to poke his head in and check on the room's occupant, but when he saw how peaceful and beautiful she looked in her sleep, he couldn't resist going all the way in and closing the door behind himself before getting closer to the bed to have a better look at her.

Alexandra's room was decorated in her two favorite colors, which were lilac and a light shade of green. She absolutely loved Harry Potter, so she had a lot of posters and things on her walls, like a Platform 9 3/4 poster, one that said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and so on, and as he got closer to the bed, because of the way she was positioned and the way the covers were on top of her, he could see that she was wearing her sweatpants with the Hufflepuff house crest on one of the legs, which she wore as pajama pants quite often, so it wasn't surprising to see she had chosen them for tonight. (Hufflepuff was her house, or so she said, just as Levi said that his was Gryffindor. When the Doctor had asked them once what had made them reach these conclusions, they had answered that they'd taken a quiz online to see which houses they would be in if they went to Hogwarts, and those apparently had been their respective results; Alex especially was very proud of her house and owned not only the sweatpants, but also a tank top and a t-shirt with the house crest. "Besides," she said, "our common room is near the kitchen, so yay for that, we get midnight snacks and everyone else doesn't, take that, Levi, in your face!")

She looked so peaceful in her sleep. Younger, even. She had let her hair out of its braids before going to bed, and it was splayed out around her on the pillow in beautiful waves. She was laying on her side hugging her stuffed koala toy against herself with one arm, her other hand laying beneath the pillow. Seeing her like this, the Doctor was almost able to imagine that things were still okay and the Krillitane had never touched their family.

Almost.

He pulled the covers farther up on her, and she shifted a little in her sleep, letting out a gentle sigh before settling back down. He leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her temple, then turned and left the room, quietly shutting the door as he did so. After a moment's consideration of what to do with himself, he decided to go to the TARDIS library. When he got there, he picked a book at random and sat down with it. However, he wasn't really seeing the words on the pages, nor was he truly aware of what was happening in the book, because his mind was otherwise occupied with thoughts of Alexandra and all they had been through together since Rose's death.

He had truly been doing the very best he could to raise her on his own, but it wasn't always easy. In fact, sometimes it was much harder than he expected it to be. There were also times when he felt like he wasn't doing a good enough job, that he was failing as a father and letting down not only his daughter, but also Rose, and the idea that he was doing things in a way that would disappoint Rose always killed him on the inside. Alex had said plenty of times before that he was the best dad she could ever possibly ask for and she wouldn't trade him for the whole universe, and it helped reassure him to some extent that maybe he wasn't screwing things up _too_ badly, but still, there was always at least some small trace of lingering doubt in the back of his mind, that small part of him that couldn't help but wonder, _What if?_

He didn't know how long he spent there with the book in his hands and these thoughts going through his head, but it must have been at least several hours, because he was snapped out of it suddenly by the sound of movement and voices, and he knew that Alex and Levi must be awake.

Better get down there before either of them got any ideas about messing with the controls or something.

* * *

 _"Claire...Claire..."_

"Claire!"  
"Huh?!"

She jolted awake and looked around blearily. Crystal was kneeling on the mattress watching her with a concerned expression. "You okay?" the older girl asked quietly.

"Yeah," Claire replied after a moment, "yeah, I'm fine."  
"You were kind of freaking out in your sleep. The dream again?"

"I...I don't remember."

Crystal nodded slowly, and Claire could tell that she wasn't fully believed. It didn't matter, though. Let Crystal believe whatever she wanted, just as long as she didn't press the matter. The last thing Claire wanted to do was talk about it. She wasn't very good at being open about this sort of thing. The whole sharing-one's-feelings crap, it just wasn't in her wheelhouse. Thankfully, Crystal knew and respected that, so she never tried to push Claire to talk about things she didn't want to.

Wordlessly, Crystal got up from Claire's bed and went back over to her own, laying down and pulling the covers over herself. For a few minutes or so, the girls lay there silently in the dark.

"Crystal?"  
"Mmmmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"  
"Yeah, sure, what is it, kiddo?"

"What'd you think of that Doctor guy?"  
"Seemed alright. Little...off, but not necessarily in a bad way. Why?"

"I dunno. Just wondering. That guy Levi was kinda cute."  
"I guess, but he's probably still a minor. Don't be a pedo, Claire."

"I'm just saying, that's all. Oh, come on, you can't tell me you didn't think he was at least a _little_ cute."  
"Not really my type is all I'm saying. Now, the Doctor, he wasn't too shabby-looking if you ask me. Kinda... _foxy."_

"Seriously? He's probably like twice your age, you realize that, right?"  
"Doesn't make him any less attractive. Besides, at least he's not underage."

"He's got a teenage daughter, for Christ sakes!"  
"Who says I can't be a good step-mom?"

"You don't even know what the deal is with her birth mother."  
"He said in the vamps' cabin that he lost the mother, so I'm assuming she's dead or something."

They were interrupted by Claire's ringing cell phone. She sighed. "We'll continue this discussion in a minute," she said after checking the caller ID. She heard Crystal giggle in the darkness, then hit accept.

"Hey, Cas," she said.  
 _"Hello, Claire,"_ Castiel replied. _"I, um...I just thought I'd call to check on you since we haven't spoken in a while. I wanted to make sure you're doing okay."_

"Yeah, I'm doing fine. Um...thanks for the concern, I guess? Yeah, no, I actually, um...I'm a hunter now."

There was a beat of silence.

"Hello? Cas, you still there?"  
 _"Yes. I'm sorry, it just...I wasn't expecting that. So...how is that going for you?"  
_ "Pretty good. I made a friend, and we're partners, so...yeah. We make a good team, me and Crystal. Yeah, we actually just wiped out this nest of vamps earlier, saved a couple teenagers from becoming snacks for 'em."

"Oooh, are you talking to your angel friend?" Crystal asked eagerly. "Can I say hi? Lemme talk to him, pleeeaaase?"  
"Shut up, Crystal, this ain't your phone call!" Claire shot back.

"Hi, Mr. Angel, sir, Claire's told me all about you and you sound seriously bad-ass!" Crystal said loudly.

Claire rolled her eyes.

"Crystal says—"  
 _"Yes, I—I heard her. I suppose just tell her I said thank you."  
_

"He says thanks. So, Cas, what have you and those troublemakers been up to lately?"  
 _"Sam and I are still trying to figure out a way to get the Mark of Cain off Dean's arm. Sam's got a very powerful witch named Rowena helping us crack the Book of the Damned. Unfortunately, the Book got our friend Charlie killed. The boys found her bloodied up pretty bad in a motel bathtub. It's hit them both pretty hard. Charlie was like a sister to them._ _"_

"Shit, that's horrible. I'm so sorry."

"Psst! Hey, Claire! Ask him if he's ever heard of that Doctor guy!"

"What the hell makes you think he has?" Claire demanded.  
"That vampire chick knew him, so it's worth a shot, right?"

Claire sighed as she gave another roll of her eyes.

"Hey, Cas, can I ask you something to shut Crystal up?"  
 _"Sure, what is it?"_

"You wouldn't have happened to have heard of a guy calling himself the Doctor, would you?"

 _"The Doctor?"  
_ "Yeah."

"Just _the Doctor?"  
_ "Apparently, yeah."

 _"Has a blue police box that he refers to as the TARDIS, that Doctor?"  
_ "Oh, um, well, I don't know. We didn't see any police box, we met him at the vampires' hideout. One of the teenagers we freed was his daughter."

 _"His daughter? Interesting. He never mentioned a daughter, but I suppose she perhaps wasn't born yet."  
_ "Holy shit, you've met this guy?!" Claire exclaimed, shooting into a sitting position.

 _"Yes. A long time ago, before your father allowed me to use his body as a vessel. Before your father was even born."  
_ "So you had a different vessel at the time?"

 _"Exactly. The Doctor and I met in Indonesia, August of 1883 on the day Krakatoa erupted."  
_ "What?! There's no way he can possibly be that old, I mean he looked early-to-mid-thirties at the most!"

"What's he saying, what's he saying?!" Crystal demanded.  
"He said he met the Doctor back when he had a different vessel, in August 1883 in Indonesia the day Krakatoa erupted," Claire replied.

"Seriously?! I wanna hear all of this!"  
"Hang on, Cas, I'm putting you on speaker so Crystal can listen."

She took the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker, then, as Crystal got up and came to sit on Claire's bed with her, she put it down between them on the mattress.

"Okay," she said, "keep talking, tell us what the deal is with this guy."

 _"As I said, it was in 1883. My vessel back then was a young man from a village near Krakatoa named Agung. I won't bore you with all the insignificant details, but to make a long story short, we each ended up revealing to the other what we really were. I told him I was an Angel of the Lord, and he told me that he was a Time Lord."_

There was a pause, during which the girls glanced at each other.

"A what?" Crystal asked finally.

 _"A Time Lord,"_ Castiel repeated. _"They're a race from a planet called Gallifrey. They have ships called TARDISes that are able to travel through space and time in what's called the time vortex. TARDIS is an acronym, he told me it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. He showed me his, let me go inside it, told me that it looked like a blue police box on the outside because the component that lets it disguise itself to blend in with its surroundings, which he called the chameleon circuit, was broken, so it was stuck looking like that. It was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. Unfortunately, he also told me that he was the only surviving Time Lord, that all the others had been killed when Gallifrey was destroyed in the Last Great Time War. He'd been traveling around all by himself ever since. But if he has a daughter, then I suppose he's not so alone anymore, is he? He must have met someone very special."_

"Well, whoever she is, Crystal seems to think she's dead for some reason," Claire said somewhat sardonically.  
"The guy said he lost her, Claire, it's a natural assumption to make from that kind of statement," Crystal replied.

 _"Well, I can tell you one thing. If the Doctor is around, then chances are, something big is about to happen. There's no telling what it might be, though, so just...be careful, alright?"_

"Yeah, sure thing, Cas."  
 _"Alright. Well, I've bothered you long enough. Like I said, I just wanted to check on you."_

"Yeah, thanks for calling. Talk to you later."  
 _"Goodbye, Claire."_

"Wow," Crystal said after Claire had hung up. "We met a time-traveling alien. How crazy is that? Welp, I'm going back to bed. See you in the morning, Claire!"

"Yeah," Claire said, "see you in the morning."

* * *

 **Please review? Pretty pretty please?  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yaaaay, more stuff happens! OH, okay, so I gotta tell you, I ordered a TARDIS blanket and a tin sign that looks like the one on the TARDIS door off of Hot Topic, and they got here a few days ago, and we put the sign up on the outside of my bedroom door, and it looks AWESOME! I told my friend Maddy about it and she was like, "Ooh, you should paint the door blue!" I also ordered a sonic screwdriver for like fifteen bucks, and I took it to school today to show my Whovian friends, and I walked up to my friend Hope in the hallway (she owns a TARDIS dress, she's a total Whovian) and I whipped it out and was like, "Allow me to reverse the polarity OF YOUR FACE!" and I pointed it at her face and hit the button to make the sonic wave emitter light up and activate the sound effects, and she was like, "OMG, YOU GOT A SONIC SCREWDRIVER, I'M SO JEALOUS, LET ME SEE IT!"**

 **Anyway, yeah, lol.**

 **Oh, and before I forget, I just want to let everyone know that I might not post another chapter until the day after tomorrow, because I've got my musical theatre class is doing an end-of-the-year cabaret tomorrow, so I'm going to have to stay after school, so I won't even be coming home until after the show is over. I'm probably going to be EXHAUSTED afterwards, because the last song we're doing is going to be a big group number with everyone in it, and it's going to be "Revolting Children" from the musical Matilda, and the girl who choreographed it, Bailey, she really made it into a workout, which is why our teacher made it the closing number, because directly after the OPENING number, my friend Rebecca is singing a solo in which she does some serious belting, and we wanted her to have enough breath and energy for it, so we're doing a slower song as the opening number and the big energetic song as our closing number, lol.**

 **Anyway, I'll shut up and let you read now.**

 **I OWN NOTHING (except my OCs) AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

"Why are we doing this again?"  
"Because, I wanna see the box."

Claire rolled her eyes. When morning had arrived, Crystal had all but dragged her out of their motel room and back to the clearing where the vampire cabin was, insisting that they use their hunting skills to try and track the path that the Doctor, his daughter, and their friend had taken upon leaving the scene earlier because she was determined to see "the box," as she kept calling it, and because she had questions that she wanted answers to, but mostly because she wanted to see "the box."

Crystal let out a triumphant shout.

"Look, Claire!" she cried. "There it is, just like your angel said! A blue police box!"

Sure enough, standing there among the trees was a tall blue box that said POLICE BOX, PUBLIC CALL on it and had a sign on the door. Crystal ran up to it eagerly and looked at the sign. "'Police telephone,'" she read, '"free for use of public. Advance and assistance obtainable immediately. Officers and cars respond to all calls. Pull to open.' Well, okay, if you say so!" And so, she reached out and pulled on the handle of the door.

It didn't open.

Crystal frowned, putting both hands on the handle and pulling. When the door still didn't give way, she tugged harder, shaking it in the process. "Man!" she said. "What a rip-off! It says pull to open! Well, I'm pulling to open, and nothing's happening! Why is nothing happening, Claire? Why?!"

"You are asking the wrong girl, my friend," Claire replied.  
"We came all this way," Crystal said, stomping over to where her friend stood, "and now we can't even get into the damn thing, this is totally bogus, I mean seriou—"

"Here, what's all this, then?" a voice said.

The girls turned. Poking his head out of the door was the Doctor, a pair of glasses perched on the end of his nose. He pushed them back up and squinted at the two hunters. "Hold on," he said, "I know you. You're those hunters from earlier, the ones that saved Alex and Levi. What are you two doing out here? You after some other monster or something?"

"Actually, Mr. Doctor sir," Crystal said, "we were looking for you."  
"Correction," Claire interjected, _"she_ was looking for you, I got dragged along against my will."

"Now why on earth were you lookin' for me?" he asked.  
"Do you remember meeting an Angel of the Lord?" Crystal replied. "It would've been in 1883, in—"

"Indonesia, the day Krakatoa erupted!" he said, a grin spreading across his face. He took his glasses off and put them in his pocket as he stepped all the way outside, shutting the door behind himself. "You two know Castiel?" he asked.

"Well, she does," Crystal said, "I only know him through what she's told me, and from talking briefly on the phone earlier."

The Doctor looked at Claire with a pleasantly surprised expression. "How do you know Castiel?"  
"My dad," she said. "He was Castiel's 'one true vessel,' whatever that means. Dad's dead now, but Cas is still using his body. He feels responsible for me, so he checks up on me from time to time."

"Ah, I see. My condolences on your loss. By the way, don't think I caught either of your names earlier."  
"Oh, I'm Crystal Abbott, and this is my friend Claire Novak. Castiel told us all about you. Don't worry. Your secret's safe with us."

"The whole reason we came out here in the first place is because Crystal insisted that she absolutely _had_ to see your box, otherwise it would kill her," Claire said.  
"Oh, well, now you've seen it, haven't you? She may not look like much, but the TARDIS here is my best friend. Been through a lot together, she and I," the Doctor replied.

"Yeah, Cas said that the disguise thingy's busted," Crystal remarked.  
"The chameleon circuit, you mean? Yeah, unfortunate bit of luck, that, but—"

He was interrupted as the door suddenly opened and a voice from inside said, "Aw, come on, Alex, don't be like that! I was only joking!"  
"I've had it up to _here_ with you and your bloody codswallop, Cox, so you can just take your stupid joke and shove it up your arse for all I care!"

This was said by the Doctor's daughter as she stomped out of the TARDIS and slammed the door shut, taking a key from her pocket and using it to lock the door before shoving it back where it had come from. "There!" she said angrily, crossing her arms. "A few hours locked in there by himself ought to teach him!"

"What in the world was that all about?" the Doctor asked.  
"Oh, gee, Dad, I dunno, why don't you ask Levi?" she replied sarcastically.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady!"  
"He's driving me absolutely bonkers, Dad, he makes a complete cock-up of everything!"

"Oh, please, you're the one who practically begged me to let him travel with us, you can't be sick of him already!"  
"He's—Oh, what was it Mickey called himself that one time? Oh yeah. Levi is the _tin dog,_ Dad. That's what he is, he's the tin dog!"

"Well, somebody's not in a very good mood," Claire remarked.  
"You wouldn't be either if you had to put up with what I do," the other girl retorted. "Wait a bit...Aren't you the girls that killed those things before?"

"Yeah, that was us. Hi again," Crystal said.  
"Hi. Thanks again for gettin' us out of there. My name's Alexandra, but everyone calls me Alex."

"Nice to meet you, Alex. I'm Crystal, and this is Claire."  
"Pretty names, I like 'em. Sorry about all the yelling my mate Levi is just...Ugh!"

"Levi's the guy that was tied up with you, right?" Claire asked.  
"Right. He travels in the TARDIS with me and Dad. The TARDIS is—"

"We know. Our friend Castiel told us, he met your dad a couple centuries back."  
"Oh, yeah, Castiel! Dad's told me a bit about him before, he sounds nice."

"Okay," Crystal said, "I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but if your dad's an alien, what does that make you?"  
"Half-alien," Alex replied. "My mum was human, born and raised in London. She and Dad met in 2005 when he saved her from these things called Autons being controlled by something called the Nestene Consciousness. She started traveling with him not long after, and eventually, I was born. Isn't that right, Dad?"

"You and your mum were the best things that've ever happened to me," the Doctor said.  
"So where's your mom now?" Crystal asked. Alex's face fell somewhat, as did the Doctor's.

"She died when I was ten," Alex said quietly. "She was killed by an alien race called the Krillitane."

"Oh," Crystal said. "I'm sorry, I...I didn't know."

There were a few beats of silence, during which the Doctor reached over and took Alex's hand in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"So, um...Can either of you do anything?" Claire asked in an attempt to change the subject.  
Alex frowned in confusion. "Do anything?" she echoed, tilting her head slightly to one side.

"Yeah," Claire said, "you know, like...do you have any special alien powers or anything like that?"  
"Not really," the Doctor said, "although we do both have two hearts, and we've got what you might call a psychic link to the TARDIS."

"Two hearts?" Crystal repeated. "Seriously?"  
"My race, the Gallifreyans, it's just a natural part of our physiology, and it was one of the Gallifreyan traits that Alex ended up with."

"And we can do this thing called regenerating," Alex added.  
"Regenerating? That's a cool name, what is it?" Claire asked.

"It's sort of a way for Time Lords to cheat death," the Doctor explained. "See, when our bodies reach a certain physical age, or when we're fatally wounded or something, it activates the regeneration process, and we take on an entirely new body and appearance. We each get twelve regenerations. Alex would actually be able to regenerate even if she wasn't half-Gallifreyan, because she was born in the TARDIS. She hasn't had anything happen to her that's caused her to regenerate yet, so she's still on her first body. Me, I've regenerated...eeeh...about nine times, I think? That's right, nine times, because I'm currently on my tenth body. I was on my ninth when I met Castiel, and when I met Alex's mum. I regenerated into this body the same day Rose was killed, and it happened because one of the Krillitane injured me pretty badly, I was bleeding out."

"Wow, that's really cool," Crystal said, "I wish I could do that."  
"I watched him regenerate into this body," Alex said. "It was the first time I'd ever seen it happen, because for my whole life, I'd only ever known him with the appearance he had before this, which is the one that I physically resemble because it's the one he had when I was conceived. Anyway, it was...a little freaky to watch. His eyes changed color, his hair got longer, his physical build changed in a way that made the clothes he was wearing a little too big for him...I was honestly kind of in shock when it happened, because hearing someone tell you about it and actually seeing it are two totally different things, so, you know."

Crystal had been listening to everything they were saying, but at the same time, she had constantly been darting glances at the TARDIS, and now, she could no longer resist voicing what was on her mind.

"So, um," she said, "I was wondering...would it be alright if I had a look inside your...um...Sorry, what was it called again?"

"TARDIS," they chorused.  
"Right, TARDIS. I mean, I guess I understand if you say no, but I just...I'm really, really, _really_ curious about what it looks like in there, Cas said it's bigger on the inside, and I really want to see exactly what he means by that, and—"

"Sure, why not?" the Doctor interrupted. "I don't see any harm in it. Just don't touch any of the buttons or levers or anything, alright? That's one of my main rules for Levi, because I don't want anything getting messed up on accident. The only reason that rule doesn't also apply to Alex is because she's grown up in this thing, she knows how everything works. Just as long as you keep your hands to yourself, I see no reason not to let you have a look around."

"Really? Oh my God, thank you _so_ much! I won't touch anything, I swear!" Crystal said excitedly, and then shoved her hands into her pockets to emphasize her promise.

The Doctor grinned at her, then produced a key from his pocket much like the one Alex had taken out earlier, using it to unlock the door before putting it back in his pocket. He pulled on the door handle and stood there holding it open as all three girls went inside, Alex in the lead, then he followed them in.

Claire and Crystal were looking around in awe.

"Oh. My. _God,"_ they said in unison.

"When Cas said 'bigger on the inside,' he really meant 'bigger on the inside,' huh?" Crystal said.  
"Yeah, no shit," Claire agreed, only vaguely aware of Alex taking off her light blue hoodie and draping it over the back of a chair.

"So, what's that thing inside the glass there?" Crystal asked, pointing at the big column in the middle of the room.  
"Oh, that's the time rotor!" the Doctor said. "It rises and falls while we're in flight, then stops when we reach our destination."

"What's it do? Like, what's it's purpose?"  
"Well, it's connected to the lower engines, so it moves accordingly as the TARDIS moves, and it'll stop moving if, say, the engines stall. If the glass gets damaged, a poisonous gas comes out until the extractor fans get activated. It also lights up when it's moving. Anyway, it's quite a vital component in getting from Point A to Point B."

"Alright, I'm seeing a staircase," Claire said. "Just how big is this thing?"  
"First of all, the TARDIS is not _just_ a 'thing,' she's a _living_ thing, believe it or not, hence why I refer to her as a she. And she's huge! Got bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and dining room, a library, a whole big wardrobe absolutely full of clothes from all different time periods and all different parts of the world, even a pool."

"First time Levi discovered the pool," Alex said, grinning impishly, "I snuck up on him from behind and shoved him in, it was hilarious. 'Course, he didn't think so, but it was. Oooh, hey, you wanna see my room? It's just up the stairs and down the hall, really easy to tell which one because I've got a sign on the door that I made myself. You like Harry Potter at all, either of you? 'Cause I've got a _bunch_ of Harry Potter stuff, I absolutely love the entire franchise, it's just a tiny bit of an obsession for me, to be completely honest."

"Harry Potter is awesome," Crystal agreed. "Do you know your house?"  
"Oh, totally. I'm Hufflepuff, badgers for the win! What 'bout you?"

"I'm a lion, just like the Golden Trio."  
"Oh, neat, so's Levi!"

"So's Levi what?" Levi asked as he entered the console room.  
"In Gryffindor like Harry, Ron, and Hermione," Alex replied. "Levi, this is Claire and Crystal, the girls who saved us earlier. Ladies, this is my pillock of a best mate, Levi Cox."

"What's a pillock?" Claire asked.  
"Oh, that's right, you don't use that word in America, do you? It's just a slang word for idiot. And you don't call your friends your mates, either, huh?"

"No, not really," Claire said. "We just say friend."  
"It's so funny, don't you think?" Alex said. "That England and America speak the same language, but we have totally different words and phrases for certain things? Like how you call 'em French fries and we call 'em chips, or how we use the word 'bloody' as an expletive and you have other words you use for that sort of thing."

"Or how you guys say 'mad' or 'bonkers' instead of 'crazy' or 'insane' or 'psycho' or whatever," Crystal added.  
"Right, or how we say 'arse' and you say 'ass,'" Levi interjected, and the girls nodded in agreement.

"I guess that's just what we get for breaking off from England and declaring our independence as a separate country," Claire said with a shrug.  
"Hey, speaking of kings and queens and stuff, indirect though it may be," Alex said, "did you know that my mum and dad got knighted by Queen Victoria once?"

"What? No way! Really?" Crystal said.  
"Yep!" the Doctor replied. "It was in 1879. We met her in Scotland at Torchwood House, dealt with a werewolf situation, and afterwards, she knighted us. I became Sir Doctor of TARDIS, and Rose was Dame Rose Tyler of Church and State. Quite a wild ride, that was! Rose and I made a bet that she wouldn't be able to get Victoria to say, 'We are not amused,' but by God, she _finally_ managed to get it out of her and I lost that bet. Ah, I'll never forget that. Rose considered it quite the accomplishment, she was pretty proud of herself for doing that. Ah, yeah. Anyway..."

There was a pause in the conversation.

"So," Claire said, "you mentioned that you've met hunters before, and I was wondering if any in particular stood out in your memory."

The Doctor thought for a few moments, then snapped his fingers.

"John," he said. "John Winchester. He was driven by the need to avenge his wife's death, she'd been killed by a demon when the younger of his two sons was a baby, and he and the boys had been on the road ever since. The sons' names were...Oh, bugger, why can't I remember?"

"Sam and Dean?" Claire offered.  
"That's it, Sam and Dean! How'd you know?"

"Because I know them. I've met them on more than one occasion, they're like best friends with Castiel, he helps them out all the freaking time. Dean's kind of a douche these days, to be honest, especially with that thing on his arm."

"Well, how 'bout that, what a coincidence! Wait, what thing on his arm?"  
"The Mark of Cain. Sam and Cas have been trying to figure out how to get it off. Apparently it's making Dean a lot more violent and shit than he normally is, and Sam's desperate to get his big brother back."

"Wow. Well, I wish them the best of luck with that. Do you know how their dad is doing, have they ever mentioned him?"  
"Yeah, he's dead. Has been for several years now. Sacrificed himself to save one of them or something, I don't know."

"Ah, I see. Well...hazards of the job, I suppose."

"Um, Doctor?" Levi interrupted. "You might want to come have a look at this."

The Doctor frowned and went over to where Alex and Levi stood staring at the screen of the monitor. They moved out of the way, and he put his glasses on, peering at whatever they had been looking at. After a moment, a strange expression washed over his face.

"No," he whispered, "it can't be..."

"Dad? What is it, what's wrong?"

The Doctor looked at his daughter, removing his glasses and staring at her in a mixture of shock and horror. He said only one word:

"Krillitane."

* * *

 ** _DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!  
_**

 **CLIFFHANGER, BITCHES, LMAO!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Okay, so first of all, the thing last night was _AWESOME,_ everybody _completely_ kicked ass, plus we all had our sexy on and looked, as my friend Maddy would say to describe Ten in his glasses, "a little bit fox-eeeh," so HOLLA! (lol, seriously, though, everyone looked very nice all dressed up nice and fancy, and we were all complimenting each other on how handsome/beautiful we looked, it was great) Anybody who wants to know more about it just needs to ask, I will be more than happy to oblige. :)**

 **Anyway, this chapter isn't really as long as I wanted it to be, but it ends on what I, personally, think is a really good line, not to toot my own horn or anything (geez, i've never liked that phrase very much, i try to avoid using it if i can). It also has some really sweet, tender father/daughter stuff going on between Alex and the Doctor, and I'm quite proud of the way that all turned out, I really was happy with myself for being able to work that in, and I hope you guys enjoy it, too. Also, you're going to see Alex mention a nursery rhyme in this chapter, and I'll explain about that at the end.**

 **Um, let's see, was there anything else I wanted to say...? Nope, don't think so!**

 **I OWN NOTHING (except my OCs) AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

There was total silence for almost two full minutes before anyone spoke.

"Krillitane," Levi said finally, "that's...that's the race that killed Alex's mum, right?"

The Doctor nodded slowly, that look of horrified shock still on his face. Alex looked stricken, as if she might collapse at any moment; all the blood had drained from her face, turning it a stark white as she slowly sank into the pilot's chair, her knees shaking and threatening to give out. She lowered her head and covered her face with her hands.

"What exactly are these things, anyway?" Claire asked.  
"They're horrible is what they are," the Doctor said. "They...They take physical features from races they conquer, 'cherry-pick' the best features. They take the conquered race's abilities, and since they're constantly doing this, their appearances and qualities are constantly changing and evolving. They can't shapeshift, but they can create what are called morphic illusions in order to disguise themselves as humans."

"So just how bad are they?"  
"I'll explain it to you the way I explained it to Rose—think how bad things could possibly be, then add another suitcase full of bad."

"Holy shit, that's bad," Crystal said.  
"Yes, it is," the Doctor agreed.

Alex moaned into her hands, and everyone turned to look at her. When she lifted her head, they saw that her eyes were rimmed with red and her face was tear-streaked.

"Daddy..." she said, her voice cracking.

The Doctor was beside her in two long strides, and she stood up, falling into his open arms. They stood there like that, Alex sobbing into her father's shoulder while he gently rubbed her back. Even as hardened as she was by that point in her life, pity tore at Claire. After all, Alexandra wasn't the only one who had lost a parent to something of such a magnitude. She sighed quietly.

"Hey...Alex?" she said.  
The other girl raised her head, looking at the blonde with wide, watery blue eyes.

"I...I know that this probably doesn't really help much, but I just wanted to say that...I kind of understand. I mean...I lost both my parents before I became a hunter. I don't know exactly what happened to my dad because I wasn't there to see it, I just know that Cas told me he's in Heaven. My mom...There was this angel named Tamiel, but he wasn't just any angel, he was a type called a Grigori, which are a class of angels that prey on humanity...I won't go into the details of what that means, but, anyway...Tamiel tried to kill me with his angel sword, but my mom threw herself in front of me, and...it just...went straight through her...Sam, Dean, and Cas all tried to kill Tamiel, but he overpowered all of them, so I grabbed the angel sword and stabbed the son of a bitch from behind...Mom...she died, and...Anyway, I just...I just wanted to tell you that I kind of get it, so...yeah..."

"...Thanks, Claire. That means a lot," Alex said. She sniffed and wiped the corner of her eye, then looked up at the Doctor. "Dad," she said, "we've got to do something about this."

"'We' nothing, young lady," he replied. "You're staying right here where you'll be safe."  
"But Dad, I can help!" she protested. "I _want_ to help! I can hold my own in a fight, you know that!"

He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.

"Listen to me, Alexandra," he said. "Losing your mother was one of the two worst things that has ever happened to me, and you know perfectly well what the other was. You are all I have left of her, and I would never forgive myself if anything ever happened to you. I know you can regenerate, but what if you were hurt while you were in the middle of the process? You know as well as I do that it could kill you for good. You are the most precious thing I have, and I love you more than anything else in all the universe, and I will stop at absolutely _nothing_ to ensure your safety. Every time I tell you to stay behind, I'm doing it to protect you. I know over five billion languages, yet not a single one of them has any words sufficient enough to describe how much you mean to me. I already lost your mother...I can't lose you, too."

Alex sobbed, throwing her arms around his neck. "I love you, Daddy," she said through her tears.  
"I know," he whispered. "I love you, too. I've loved you from the very moment I knew your mother was pregnant with you."

"What 'bout me?" Levi asked. "Am I allowed to help?"  
"No," the Doctor said, turning to look at him. "I won't have Alex left alone while these monsters are in the area, I'm not taking that chance. I want you to stay here with her, and if any of them show up, do whatever it takes to get her to safety."

"But Dad, you can't face them alone," Alex said. "I mean, what if...what if they do something to you again? Levi and I won't have any way of knowing. I don't...I don't want to—"

"He won't face them alone," Claire interrupted. "I'll help him."

"So will I," Crystal announced.

"Oh, no, I can't possibly ask you to do that," the Doctor said.  
"You didn't ask," Claire replied, "we're volunteering."

"I appreciate the offer, girls, but you truly have no idea just how dangerous these things are."  
"We both know what it's like to lose someone you love to a monster. I lost my parents to the supernatural world, and Crystal's dads were killed by a kitsune. You want revenge, right? For what happened to Alex's mom? Well, guess what? We hunt monsters for a living. We can help you get that revenge. Alex, you said you were ten when it happened, right? How old are you now?"

"Sixteen," Alex said.  
Claire looked at the Doctor.

"Six years, Doctor," she said. "That's an awful long time to spend suffering from the knowledge that her killers are still out there, don't you think? The kitsune that killed Crystal's dads, a hunter showed up and killed that bitch pretty soon afterwards, just in time to save Crystal from becoming the next victim. That's how she became a hunter. And me, I was lucky enough to be able to kill my mother's murderer myself. But you...The creatures that made you and Alex suffer, that took her mom from you...nobody ever got them, did they? These things got a leader, some kind of hierarchy?"

"Lassar," the Doctor said. "His name is Lassar."  
"Do you know if he was the one that killed her, or was it another?"

"I don't know. I wasn't there when it happened, Alex and I got separated from Rose and our friend Sarah Jane, it happened while we were apart, and afterwards, we found Sarah Jane kneeling on the floor next to Rose's body. Lassar was the one that gave me the wound that caused my regeneration, but I have no idea whether he delivered the killing blow to Rose or if it was someone else."

"Alright, so here's what we'll do. We'll find out which one of them killed her, and then put an end to whoever it was. We'll kill this Lassar guy, too, and as many of the others as we can manage to get."  
"It's not that simple," the Doctor said, "we need Krillitane oil to kill them. It's something they produce, but because of their constant changes, it became toxic to them. Unless they're making some and storing it somewhere, we won't be able to get any to use against them."

"So we'll find out if they are," Claire responded.  
"Even if they are, we might not even be able to get at it!" the Doctor said in frustration. "They store it in barrels that have deadlock seals on them, my sonic can't get past deadlocks!"  
"Your what?" Crystal asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, holding it up for them to see. It proved to be the same strange object that he'd aimed threateningly at the vampires' leader earlier; Claire recognized it as such.

"Sonic screwdriver," he said. "It's linked directly to the TARDIS, an extension of the same Gallifreyan technology. Lots of uses, multiple settings. Overrides control panels, mechanical tool for the TARDIS, reverses teleporters, bio scanner and scalpel, computer interface device, lockpick, the list goes on and on. As I said, multiple power settings, all controllable via the power track on the side of the grip. This part is called a sonic wave emitter, it can be extended and retracted depending on the delicacy of the job I'm using it for. This thing is one of my best friends, I never go anywhere without it because I never know when I might need it or for what. But it _can't break a regular deadlock seal,_ which is what the Krillitane use on their barrels of oil."

"Then we'll figure out another way," Claire said.  
"Look, I don't want anyone getting hurt!" the Doctor shouted.

"It's bad enough what happened to Gallifrey, what happened to Rose, I won't have anymore deaths happen on my watch, you understand? Not yours, not hers, not Levi's, and definitely not Alexandra's! I won't! I appreciate that you want to help, I really do, but I can't accept the offer, alright? This is something I have to do on my own. It's between me and Lassar, not anybody else."

"Dad, you can't, he'll kill you!" Alex cried.  
The Doctor turned to look at her.

"Alexandra Elizabeth Tyler," he said calmly, "I will always come back to you. You understand me? _Always._ Though hell itself may bar the way, I will always find a way back, no matter what. Come Daleks, Cybermen, Krillitane, Sycorax, werewolves, or Slitheen, I will let nothing stand in my way of reaching you. I refuse to give you up without a fight. Never forget that."

She gave a weak, sad smile. "When this is over," she said quietly, "will you tell me that nursery rhyme again? The Gallifreyan one that you used to sing to me when I was little?"

He returned the smile as he reached out and gently stroked her cheek. "Of course I will, sweetheart," he said.

Alex closed her eyes and placed one hand over his, keeping it on her cheek as she leaned into his touch, drawing comfort from him in a way that was possible only between a father and daughter.

The moment ended much too soon, however, when the TARDIS shook violently, throwing everyone off balance, the Doctor catching Alex as she pitched forward and let out a shriek. When the shaking stopped, everyone remained frozen as they looked around, waiting to see if it would happen again.

"What was that?" Levi asked in a whisper that was just loud enough for everyone could hear.

There was a pause.

"Did you hear that?" the Doctor asked quietly.  
"Hear what?" Alex said.

"Sh!...Listen closely, nobody make any sound."

They all strained their ears, trying to hear whatever it was the Time Lord had picked up on, making Crystal wonder vaguely if maybe Gallifreyans had better hearing than humans or something, because she didn't hear anything except the sound of her own heartbeat, which still hadn't completely slowed down after the TARDIS's little earthquake moment.

"There it is again," the Doctor said, "hear it?"

Another pause.

Claire shook her head.

"I don't hear anything," she said in a low voice.  
"Neither do I," Crystal agreed. "Levi?"

He shook his head.

"I hear it," Alex said softly. (Levi wondered why they were all keeping their voices down. It wasn't as if there was anyone else around to hear them, and even if there was, they weren't exactly talking about anything private or that needed to be kept secret from the outside world. Then again, the Doctor and Alex were both rather eccentric, and he had figured out by then that he never could be sure exactly what to expect from either of them, it all just sort of depended on a few things, and even then, the deciding factors weren't always the same, so he had developed a policy of "expect the unexpected" when it came to them. Besides, if Claire and Crystal were also keeping their voices low, then maybe it was more than just an eccentricity, after all. Whatever the case, he decided to just go with it for now, which was often what he did with this sort of thing, anyway.)

The TARDIS suddenly shook again, this time more briefly, and as it did, they could hear an inhuman shrieking sound from outside, which Alex reacted to by screaming and then breaking down into sobs, her long hair tumbling over her shoulders as she lowered her head, gripping her father as if her life depended on it. She lifted her head and stood up straight, having been bent at the waist since the second round of shaking, pulling herself more closely against the Doctor and clinging to the fabric of his clothing, face red and tear-streaked.

"It's them!" she cried. "The Krillitane, they found us!"

That spurred the Doctor into motion.

"Alex, sweetheart, listen to me," he said, taking her face between his hands, "I want you to go to your room and stay there, alright? Levi, go with her, don't let her out of your sight no matter what happens. I want you to go up there, take the sign off the door then lock yourselves in, you understand?"

"But Rule Number Two—"  
"I'm making an exception for this situation, Levi, there's no time to worry about that sort of thing right now, and I trust you both, okay? Go up there, take the sign off the door so it's not conspicuous, lock yourselves in, and _do not_ come out under _any_ circumstances _at all_ unless and until you hear me give the signal, do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Levi nodded.

"Good. Now, Alex, darling, listen very closely to what I'm about to say. No matter what happens, no matter what you hear, _do not,_ I repeat, _do not_ leave your bedroom until you hear the signal. If you hear Krillitane shrieks, you stay put. If you hear shouting, you stay put. If you hear crying, you stay put. If you hear explosions, you stay put. If you hear me yelling, no matter what I say, _you stay. Put._ Levi, if they somehow manage to find you, I do not care what you have to do, get her to safety, and do not let her try to help me or sacrifice herself or do anything else that might result in her getting injured or killed, otherwise, I will never forgive you, I will take you straight back to London when this is over, and you will never be allowed to set foot in the TARDIS again, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

"No matter what she says to try and convince you. No matter how much she begs, pleads, or cries. No matter how wrong it might feel, or how much you might want to give in. Swear it."

"I swear.  
"You'll have to do better than that, boy."

"You have my word, on my life."  
"Good. Now, Alex knows what the signal is, she'll tell you as soon as she hears it. Claire, Crystal?"

"Yeah?" Claire said.  
The Doctor turned to face them, a dark look on his face as he pulled out his sonic and started for the door.

"Let's go kick some alien arse."

* * *

 **WOOOOOOO, BADASS MODE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED, WATCH OUT LASSAR, 'CAUSE YOU ABOUT TO GET A BIG OL' CAN OF WHOOP-ASS OPENED UP ALL OVER YOU!  
**

 **Anyway! :)**

 **Um, okay, so the nursery rhyme thing:**

 **While I was looking some stuff up on the DW wiki, I ended up clicking on a certain series of links embedded into different articles/pages that eventually led me to a page titled "Zagreus." For those of you who don't know because, say for example, you've never watched Old Who or whatever, Zagreus is, apparently, and I quote, "an anti-time creature that was formed after a mass of anti-time entered the Doctor and became sentient. The name...was taken from a legend created by the Neverpeople."**

 **The Doctor that it refers to is the Eighth Doctor, which is why you wouldn't have heard of Zagreus if, like me, you've never watched Old Who. Anyway, there's a Gallifreyan nursery rhyme called "the Zagreus rhyme" that is, surprise surprise, about Zagreus, which the Doctor's mother apparently used to sing to him when he was a boy, and I just liked the idea of him passing that onto his own daughter, you know? So that's the nursery rhyme that Alex referred to. For anyone who wants to read the nursery rhyme, it's on the DW wiki, just search "Zagreus" on the wiki, click on the first page in the results, scroll down a bit, and there it is.**

 **Okay, there was something else I wanted to say here, what was it?**

 **GOD DAMMIT, NOW IT'S GONNA DRIVE ME INSANE! D:**


End file.
